Annette Bening To Play Louisiana Governor In ‘Katrina: American Crime Story’

Annette Bening has joined the cast of FX’s Katrina: American Crime Story, the second installment of the Emmy-winning limited series from Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Bening will play Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana during and after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina: American Crime Story will tell the story of America’s response to the devastating storm. Jacobson previously told Deadline the series would examine the neglect and disparity of care that followed the storm’s landfall in August 2005. “To explore these things from a character foundation, and to revel in the shades of gray, to explore moments in which there’s a disparity between the way our country wants to see itself and the way we actually are — that’s been a really inspiring perspective for us,” she said.

The first installment, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, was nominated for 22 Emmy Awards and won nine, including Outstanding Limited Series. People v. O.J. also won two Golden Globe Awards, four Critics’ Choice Awards and was named an AFI Television Program of the Year. The limited series was FX’s most-watched series ever with 13.9 million viewers on average per episode across all linear and digital platforms.

Murphy, Jacobson and Simpson serve as executive producers on Katrina: American Crime Story, which is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.

Bening is a four-time Academy Award nominee, two-time Golden Globe-winner and SAG Award winner. She was last seen in husband Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply and stars in A24’s 20th Century Women directed by Mike Mills. Also upcoming is Michael Mayer’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s play The Seagull and Paul McGuigan’s Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool. She’s repped by CAA and Mark Gochman.